Like almost every year, my family packed up and hiked it over to the lovely San Clemente, California, where my mom's father's family lived for years. Now that whole family is leaving for Texas, so we squeezed in one last opportunity to visit the beach town we love {at least with Grandpa and Nana}. Their house has a beautiful view of the ocean, and when I wasn't soaking up the sun, I would lounge on the back porch reading and writing. One morning Mom and I went running, the cool, nearly sea-level hills different than my desert jogs.
I have decided that sometime in my life I am going to live in California 1) because I wanna be a Cali gurl but 2) because of the beauty of the sea and the refreshing weather and the easy vegetation and the Mediterranean architecture. We spent three days chillaxing on the beach, intervalling between getting tossed by the thick waves with our boogie boards and splaying out in the warm sand to nap if we couldn't find towels to lay on. Mom snapped pictures; the kids built cities or hunted for crabs and shells. Simple lunches of sandwiches and cookies sufficed as we devoured the beach life. Afterwards we snagged dinner at the traditional Pedro's Tacos or Pizza Port and took a dip in the jacuzi.
One of the main reasons for the vacation was to visit friends and relatives. Of course we were staying with the Girouards, but we also met up with our AZ cousins who happened to be vacationing at the same time, and my dad's HS best friend's family {the Morris's} who we used to go to Lake Powell with. At the beach one of these days, I was happened to be walking and turned my head right as this other girl did-- my childhood best friend Hailey who I haven't seen since she moved to CA four years ago. To the bewilderment of her friends we immediately jumped up and started hugging each other, stumbling over each other's "Oh my gosh!!"s as we soaked in the crazy coincidence.
Oh, and I mustn't forget my new-found sympathies. I learned the hard way that the ocean is much bigger than a girl who is the average height of a 12-year-old, and currents are very strong if you get caught in them. Sooner than you know it, your footing is several feet beneath you and you're already exhausted. So word to the wise-- don't think that age makes you all-powerful.
Unfortunately, we've inherited enough of my mom's Irish/English genes that we still sunburn. So for our fourth day we escaped to the road and traveled along Coastal Avenue, visiting the port and Laguna Beach. Mom pointed out the Ruby's she trained at in HS. The kids romped around the shops begging for souvenirs and ice cream.
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